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In the middle of last week I just couldn't get warm, despite turning the central heating up to 24 deg C. Finally just after lunch I went to bed and stayed there for the rest of the day. No food - I just had no appetite at all. I slept for over 10 hours that night (usual is 5-6 hours), felt slightly better next day, slept for another 9 hours and woke up feeling just fine, so hopefully yours is just a short term bug like mine was, Laurence. I hope you feel better very soon.

Well this afternoon, I finally got back into the Train Shed. First I took a picture of the test section of underlay fitted beneath the branch line track.

Then I fitted some underlay beneath the main line in the same fashion.

Finally, I added masking tape to the rest of the join.

While this was going on I ran 92006 with the express freight and 3846 with the heavy goods for a tail chase. I’m pleased to say the 92006 ran through Loop 14 without a problem with the local passenger waiting in Loop 13. It is possible to advance the local passenger far enough to cause a problem with the smoke deflectors but, in the normal course of events, this should not happen.

I then went on to treat all the board joins in the same manner as before, which meant I could now start ballasting in earnest. I laid the first three runs from the DOWN loop board through the tunnel (or, more correctly, through the position from which I had removed the tunnel entrances) and along both main lines and the branch for a short distance towards Marton Hinmarche. Here’s the result before wetting the ballast.

I have to say that using the ballast and Ballast Magic dry mix, it was quite easy to lay the ballast. It required a lot of careful brushing and forming, but I was quite pleased with the result. Filling the gap between the main lines was not too difficult. The main need for care was forming the shoulders. Once the ballast had been wetted, I replaced the tunnels and here’s the result.

Then I went on to test all three lines with 92006, 3846 and 6417. Here’s a picture of the two freight trains passing just outside the mainline tunnel entrance while the local passenger approaches the branch tunnel entrance.

I’m pleased to report that I’m now feeling significantly better and, with any luck, I hope to be back to normal tomorrow.

Hope you are feeling better soon Laurence, they layout is looking good, how do you find the Ballast Magic. I have used it too and found it easier to use than the traditional method ie pva etc. I was wondering about those gaps in the board, does it get warm in your train shed, I have made my boards connect with dowels and clamps so they can be dismantelled if needsss be, so scenery is not continued over from one board to the next. Although it gets warm in my loft room it is not a problem or it has no been upto now. I have placed bridges etc over the board joins to hide the track joins and hide the lack of ballast at the join, I would be wary of taking any scenery over from one board to another you might end up with cracks if it is indeed a expansion problem.

Hope you are feeling better soon Laurence, they layout is looking good, how do you find the Ballast Magic. I have used it too and found it easier to use than the traditional method ie pva etc. I was wondering about those gaps in the board, does it get warm in your train shed, I have made my boards connect with dowels and clamps so they can be dismantelled if needsss be, so scenery is not continued over from one board to the next. Although it gets warm in my loft room it is not a problem or it has no been upto now. I have placed bridges etc over the board joins to hide the track joins and hide the lack of ballast at the join, I would be wary of taking any scenery over from one board to another you might end up with cracks if it is indeed a expansion problem.

The board frames are bolted together with dowels and M10 bolts. The cracks are because the top boards have been lifted and re-fitted a number of times while fitting points and wiring. I don't think they move with a change in temperature.

On the ballast front: Ballast Magic sets solid very quickly, although they say allow two hours for complete setting. Even after a few minutes, there are no loose pieces of ballast (thank goodness). By the time I test the sections, everything had settled down.

I didn’t get much time in the Train Shed today. I spent a long time wrestling with a Wi Fi extender. The problem is that its outputs have the same names as those of the main router. That works OK, but you don’t know whether you are connected to the router or the extender. If I change the SSID of the extender, it wants a 32 digit alphanumeric password and I’ve not been able to enter that correctly using my phone or tablet. I did manage it with my desktop, but that’s not an issue as the desktop is rooted to the spot, so to speak and never needs to change its connection.

Anyway, back to the Train Shed. This morning, we had visitors, so a trip to the Train Shed was in order to show off what had happened since their last visit. I got to run 4915 ‘Cranmore Hall’ in a tail chase with 61664 ‘Liverpool’. Later, I managed the next batch of ballasting.

However, I didn’t get a chance to test it because there was not time to allow the ballast to cure. I’ll have a go tomorrow. But I did get to listen to my CD of steam sounds while I was laying the ballast.

First thing, I managed to clean up any remaining loose material on the newly laid ballast and run a tail chase with run 4915 ‘Cranmore Hall’ in a tail chase with 61664 ‘Liverpool’, plas testing the branch with 6417. I didn’t get back until much later because of all the fruit picking that needed doing. I needed to pick a lot because I hadn’t been one hundred percent for a few days, although I am almost back to normal now. I picked peas, three sorts of bean, tomatoes, raspberries, blueberries and gooseberries. I also weighed the strawberries and tayberries that Celia picked. I still have blackcurrants to pick, but my poor back was aching by the time I had finished the gooseberries, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. In between, I watched the first set of the women’s final, but it turned out to be an anti-climax, so I reverted to fruit picking, which was more exciting.

But I did manage to get back to the Train shed after tea and made a short video. Here you see 4915 ‘Cranmore Hall’ approaching in the UP direction, while 6417 awaits departure with a Norton-bound branch passenger at Platform 4. Then 61664 ‘Liverpool’ appears with a DOWN express. The two expresses pass in the station and then 6417 begins to pull away.

I hope to be able to do some more ballasting tomorrow. I think I might invest in a small table hoover to remove the loose bits of ballast after the Ballast Magic has cured.

I think I might invest in a small table hoover to remove the loose bits of ballast

An excellent tool to have in the train room - it is surprising how often it will get used. I have a rechargeable 'Black and Decker' Dustbuster which is more than capable of picking up bits of ballast, bits of wood, loose rail connectors and bits of wire, (if you are not careful ).

I have ordered a BLACK+DECKER™ DV1415EL 14.4 Volt Lithium-ion Dustbuster® with Cyclonic Action. Hopefully, with the cyclonic action, I should be able to find any lost sheep in there.

First thing this morning, I tried running Dicheat Manor with the parcels train. That was where I encountered a problem. I have run it many times before, but always with 80119 with the local passenger train in Loop 5. But last week, I swapped the local passenger with 61664 ‘Liverpool’ that heads an intermediate passenger. The reason for the swap was to allow 92006 to operate in the tail chasing programme. Loop 5 normally houses either 80119 or 4915 ‘Cranmore Hall’, which also hauls an intermediate passenger. The problem is caused by the parcels vans being fouled by the corridor coaches. I considered a number of options, but in the end, I decided that the best long-term solution was to slightly realign Loops 6 and 7. To that end, I moved everything out of the UP loops and relocated them either in the spare DOWN loops or in the platforms at Marton Hinmarche. Here you can see the trains parked in the station.

That left the UP loops entirely free for the track lifting and relaying.

I hope to be able to start on the track tomorrow. I shouldn’t need to pick anything tomorrow because I picked the blackcurrants today and I watered everything this evening. But there are plenty of other garden jobs to be done, so it may take a couple of days to get all the trains back to their ‘home’ loops.

Thank goodness for Copydex!Good job the ballasting hadn't reached the problem area Laurence and hope you have now sorted all the 'high risk' loops.

The hidden loops will never be ballasted (because they are, or will be, hidden). This will allow me to change the layout of them at some time in the future, if necessary, with the minimum of difficulty.

Well, I didn’t think I could get it all done so quickly, but I managed a bit of a fiddle. First, I lifted Tracks 6 and 7 from the Copydex, using a flat bladed screwdriver. Then I ascertained that there was enough wiggle room between Tracks 5 and 8 to manipulated the affected tracks without disconnecting them and cutting them to length. I was able to pin them and then use a couple of track pins to fix their new positions. I then tried out 61664 ‘Liverpool’ in Track 5 and ran 7821 ‘Ditcheat Manor’ into Track 6. It worked perfectly, so I reversed them both back to their parking positions and proceeded to pin down the two affected tracks using track pins. This took me back 30 years to my last N gauge layout when track pins were the norm.

I then ran all the trains back into the UP loops, where they had been before the start of the exercise. The last back was 3846 with the heavy goods

After that, I was able to continue with 7821 chasing its own tail with the parcels train. The loco is going to require a considerable amount of running in because it is still a bit erratic in drawbar pull. Finally, 9744 managed a couple of laps with the short local passenger. So we are making progress. I didn’t get any ballasting done today, but I hope to make some progress with that tomorrow.

Do you think the Copydex allowed the track to move slightly before it set? It may be better to lightly pin the track onto the Copydex and then remove the pins when the glue has set (just for future reference for others)